Problems
by Macve
Summary: Niou is having problems, and they are all centered on little Sakuno. NiouxSaku


**Disclaimer: **I do not own The Prince of Tennis.

**Problems**

He sees her sleeping under a cherry blossom tree.

He has spent a good half-hour looking for her, and of all places, he would just find her sleeping under a cherry blossom tree. For him, it is a cliché scene extracted from a romance flick: guy finds girl sleeping under an oh-so beautiful tree and all the sap pours down automatically.

Now, that is just his opinion, all sarcasm added. He has been hearing so much from his girl classmates who keep on talking about the latest romantic movies. He has noted that the girl-sleeping-under-a-tree-then-guy-finds-her scene is almost always present. Honestly, their stories trouble him but for all he is worth he has to bear hearing them because there is no one to talk to in class whenever a teacher is not around. The guys in his section are afraid of him because of his reputation. A lot of his girl classmates adore him because of his status and his good looks. They are wary of him, though, because if the Trickster Niou Masaharu gets annoyed, all hell breaks loose.

Then again, Niou realizes that right about now, he is in a very ironic situation.

He dislikes sappy stuff, but here he is, standing several feet away from her sleeping form. He can even say that he is _gazing _at her as her auburn tresses sway along with the wind. Her lips are parted a little. Her hands lay limply on her lap and she is wearing that sweet and innocent look on her face. Of course, she is not probably aware that she is 'wearing' that look he likes so much – err, where did that come from!

Shrugging those thoughts away, he sits in front of her sleeping form, subconsciously hoping that she will sense his presence and then, wake up. However, Niou knows much better. Ryuzaki Sakuno may as well sleep for fifteen more minutes, so he decides to wait for her so that if she 'decides' to sleep longer, he is there to wake her up. Since he is there to wake her up, she will not be panicking to go to class and in so doing, avoid tripping herself somewhere out there.

As he continually watches, some ideas strike him.

Sweet and innocent Sakuno is sleeping under a cherry blossom tree. Cliché or not, seeing a cute and pretty girl in her most vulnerable state is enough to impair the judging capabilities of a male adolescent.

Niou feels himself tense. He has never dared play tricks on Sakuno although he would tease her incessantly, calling her all sorts of baby names he can think of. But any other guy who is not a close friend of hers can just play tricks on her while asleep. He does not want that. Although the prospect of skinning some guy alive and hanging him on the biggest tree in the school grounds sounds appealing, he does not want a 'molested' Sakuno the foremost reason for him to do that.

Perhaps, some guys playing tricks on her is less likely to happen. One reason is that the place is practically far off the school buildings and only a few people know the place. And so, Niou concludes that although he still has to watch over little Sakuno, he can safely scratch the guy-playing-tricks idea. However, while he soothes his thoughts away from such problem, he finds himself drowning to another one: the possibility of a guy kissing Sakuno.

True, few people know the place where the cherry blossom tree is located. Those few people are the Rikkai Dai Tennis Club Regulars and Sakuno. It all seems safe because they are friends. Then again, Niou, being the observant person he is, knows that some of the regulars regard her as more than a friend.

There is Yukimura Seiichi. Niou can point instances when he has caught the tennis captain gazing intensely at Sakuno. He has said he can 'point' out because the instances had been too many to count and that bothers Niou. Then again, Niou concludes that Yukimura is a man who thinks first before he acts and only a man who acts first before thinking over what he did is more likely to do the crime.

By crime, he means the guy stealing a kiss from Sakuno while she sleeps.

With the last thought, Niou finds himself cold and warm at the same time. He fisted both hands, hard enough to hurt himself. His breathing became ragged as the name Kirihara Akaya comes to mind.

Of course, Akaya is a smart guy – he cannot deny that. He may not perform well in class always but he has a good head on his shoulders which becomes of good use when it comes to playing tennis. However, there are times that he acts on impulse which makes him more likely to do the 'crime'. The thought is enough to drive Niou mad because he knows that Akaya sees Sakuno as more than a friend. The brat mellows down whenever he is with the pretty auburn-haired girl. His roughness is still present but his ways towards her are gentle. Add the fact that he has never seen Akaya treat a girl gently and the possibility of Akaya stealing a kiss from Sakuno rises past the roofs.

So he decides that when Sakuno wakes up, he must tell her not to sleep under a cherry blossom tree alone…or perhaps not without him. Of course, little Sakuno will understand and obey him when he tells her that it will be dangerous for her to do so especially when there are lots of rude guys in school. He decides to keep to himself his _little_ dilemma regarding the other regulars as the other reason because he does not want to overwhelm her by sounding overprotective of her and jealous of the other regulars. But the thought of the other regulars still disturbs him. Although Sakuno will be safe with Sanada and Yagyuu, he doubts that she will be with Yanagi, Bunta, Jackal, _Akaya _and _Yukimura._

Sanada is Sanada. The self-controlled man will not 'molest' her especially when he sees her like his little sister.

Yagyuu is a gentleman. He will not steal a kiss from Sakuno.

The situation with Bunta or Jackal is still vague to him but he must be cautious still.

Yanagi acts friendly to Sakuno but he loves to collect data of her and Niou is ninety percent sure that he will sell it to interested folks, like Akaya and Yukimura, although Niou doubts Yukimura will buy the data.

Niou kneels as he inched nearer. The wind whispers again, blowing Sakuno's auburn locks. Niou sees that some wisps of her hair have stuck to her face so both his hands reach for her face to brush the auburn wisps away.

He knows that lunch break may end some time soon but he is too content to break this moment especially when he has realized that he likes the girl much more than what he thinks. He is in the brink of falling in love…

Ah yes…sappy stuff.

Niou is terribly disturbed because he dislikes sap, but at the same time, recognizing that he is falling for Sakuno puts him at ease. Perhaps, he thought, there is nothing sappy in admitting that he likes her. Things just become sappy when they become too ideal – romantic, so to say – and that may explain why realistic Niou dislikes sap. Of course, he too dreams and hopes like other people but he is not one to dwell on the ideal. He stays close to the 'real' side, and his admission regarding Sakuno is just him being realistic.

Right

The brushing of some wisps of hair leads to him putting his left hand at the back of her head as he closes the gap between them. His right grasps both her little hands, gently massaging them. His face inches nearer to hers – no one is authorized to steal a kiss from Sakuno _except him_.

His lips are just a few breaths away from hers when he hears her murmur in her sleep.

"Bunta-senpai…"

_Oh crap._

He may have heard wrong but then…

"Bunta-senpai…" Then he hears Sakuno sigh – heavily.

He is not expecting this. She is dreaming of Bunta? Has he lost her to the cake-crazy boy? But he has never found any signs and it is hard to believe that he has missed any because he knows he is one of the most observant people in their bunch. For once, Niou does not know what to do. His hands fell limply on his sides and his breathing become more ragged the more he stays in front of Sakuno. He knows he is hurting, but before he could think of something…

"Gomen Bunta-senpai…gomen…I…" Sakuno sniffs. Niou waits patiently for her to continue sleep-talking.

Instead, she chooses to wake up that instant. Groggily rubbing her eyes, she sits straight only to find the wide-eyed face of Niou Masaharu inches away from hers. Her face turns to several shades of red.

"Ni-Niou-se-se-senpai…" she stutters. "Ano…go…gomen…but…"

Niou masks his hurt face. "You were sleep-talking."

"I were?" Curiosity seems to straighten her tongue a bit.

Niou nods.

Sakuno blushes again and Niou, regardless of the tightness in his chest, still finds her adorable as the apples of her cheeks become redder.

"I had a bad dream Niou-senpai," she began. Perhaps, telling her senpai about her unpleasant dream will ease some of the sadness away. Besides, Niou-senpai has always been kind to her.

"A bad dream? What is it?" His hand regains its soul and finds its way to her cheeks, caressing the soft skin. "You can tell me," he encourages and this was enough assurance for Sakuno to tell him all about her bad dream.

"In my dream, I promised Bunta-senpai that I will bake him a fudge walnut brownie…" Sakuno sniffs and bows her head low enough so Niou cannot see her grief-stricken face. "…but in my dream, I forgot to bring it with me to school and when he found it out…he…Bunta-senpai…he looked really…sad."

Niou feels that the whole planet Earth fell on him. Sakuno has dreamt of Bunta – a sad Bunta – and the dream is enough to trouble her.

"He is that important to you, ne, Sakuno?"

_Oh crap. _Did he just say that aloud?

Of course, sweet and innocent Sakuno did not notice that Niou-senpai slipped, but she immediately thinks that perhaps, Niou-senpai must think he is not important to her at all…

"O…of…co…course Bunta-senpai is…important," she started. "But all of you are important to me Niou-senpai! It's just that..." Sakuno stops midway. There is the fire in her eyes but the fire fades out as worry clouds her face.

Niou discovers that he does not like cliffhangers, but he waits patiently. Patience is one of the trickster's good traits – if not one of the best – since being a trickster entails waiting for the right time to catch and agonize a prey. This time though, he waits in bittersweet apprehension because Sakuno is far from _his_ prey.

"It so happened that I dreamt of Bunta-senpai just now. I mean…I have dreamt of all of you and I have been disturbed because in all of my dreams, I saw all of you sad in the end. I do not want to see any one of you sad, senpai," she said, tears threatening to spill, her small hands clenched into tight fists.

Niou instinctively reaches for both her balled fists and gently unclenches them. Innocent Sakuno blushes hard at the contact, and she blushes even more when she sees Niou-senpai gazing intensely at her.

"Ano…" she is about to stutter again. "Senpai?"

Niou gently massages her hands as the thought of Bunta and Sakuno as a couple slowly fades in his mind. So, she has been dreaming of all of the Rikkai regulars eh? And she wakes up disturbed because her dreams with each of them end up sadly. Funny as it sounds, he feels his heart soar at the thought of her worrying about him, but he quickly pushes the thought aside. He does not want her to be sad. Also, he has no enough basis to assume anything from what she just said. It may be that Sakuno is sixteen but she is still as innocent as a child. She sees all of the guys and values them as her close friends – brothers even – and that does pose as another problem to him because sooner or later he has to tell her she means to him as more than a friend. Confessing to her in such a delicate thread can put their friendly relationship on the rocks so he has to be careful. The last thing he wants is to lose her.

Niou breathes deeply. He smiles inwardly upon seeing Sakuno wearing the curious-child look on her face. Her lips are parted a little and he slowly bows his head as he is reminded of his attempt to steal a kiss from her. Perhaps he is blushing too, because he can feel as if all of the blood in his body made a camp in his cheeks. Needless to say, he feels better now to the point that he raised his head to give her a sly look.

Sakuno cocks her head to her right. Niou-senpai is giving her a look and she feels disturbed by it.

Niou finds her adorable, and his sly grin widens.

"So, Rui-chi, let's go. You don't want to be late now, do you?"

He purposefully calls her that because he wants to see her pout cutely and blush furiously in discomfort. Just like now.

"Niou-senpai…" she began. She tries to glare at him but the glare turns only to a cuter pout. "Why do you insist on calling me Rui-chi? My name is not Rui."

Niou-senpai's sly smile is already wide but Sakuno is ready to bet several more inches of her still long but already trimmed hair that Niou-senpai's smile is reaching his ears.

_Because you seem to bring all sorts of troubles to me little Sakuno. The thing is, I don't mind at all._


End file.
